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3 On Your Side: Making Your Resume Stand Out

By Jim Donovan

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's not always easy to land a job. Applicants are often up against hundreds of people, which is why having a standout resume is more important than ever. In this 3 On Your Side consumer report, Jim Donovan takes a look at what recruiters are looking for and the critical mistakes some job seekers are making.

Dawn Marie Warner knows just how important that resume can be.

Which is why she brought a stack of them to a job fair, hoping to stand out in a sea of applicants.

A recent survey by CareerBuilder found 43 percent of hiring managers  spend less than a minute looking at a resume.

That's why job coach Christine Mensah says it's critical to get right to the point.

"So you have to grab their attention very quickly, you cannot have a long paragraph, long essay. Bullet points to the point, powerful action verbs," said Mensah.

In the survey 75 percent of HR managers also reported finding lies on resumes. They found plenty of mistakes too, which can kill an applicants chances.

"On one of my resumes, I ended up having a question mark next to my skills. So it makes it look like, 'oh, he's compassionate?' instead of saying, 'oh, he's compassionate,'" said Xavier Brown.

This time around Brown's resumes are typo free. He's hoping it catches an employer's eye and leads to a new job.

Visit http://advice.careerbuilder.com/?categories=Resumes for more information.

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